


Blackstar

by DarkKnightDan



Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: Aliens, Alternate Universe - Military, Alternate Universe - Space, Crime Fighting, Crimes & Criminals, Eventual Fluff, F/M, Family Feels, IN SPACE!, Implied Relationships, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Mass Effect Zootopia Basically, Military Background, Military Backstory, Outer Space, Space Opera, Space Pirates, Spaceships, Twisted and Fluffy Feelings, War
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-26
Updated: 2017-12-07
Packaged: 2018-09-19 23:33:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 13,274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9465542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkKnightDan/pseuds/DarkKnightDan
Summary: Picking up the pieces after the crash was hard enough, when you had members of the crew who were being reassigned, joining new squads, and going on different missions. Lieutenant Hopps went on one such mission, and the results of that mission changed the face of the galaxy forever.





	1. Wreckage

The shuttle’s engines drowned out all other noise as it made its descent out of the lower atmosphere, cruising over the ground at a land speed fast enough to bring everything outside of the windows to an incomprehensible blur. “Mind slowing down a bit?” I yelled over the roar of the engines as I rocked with the rhythm of the pod as it was buffeted by the wind sweeping over the dusty-orange landscape outside of the window. “We’re going to miss the pod if we keep going at this speed.” I muttered when the pilot neglected to slow down even in the slightest. I shrugged one shoulder to dispel the discomfort that had settled on the joint from the weight of the assault rifle that hung off of my shoulder. My grip tightened on the underside of the rifle, gripping it to give myself some manner of stability when the only thing I had to hold onto to keep myself from falling was the loose rope above the shuttle’s door. 

“W-de,” a voice came over the earpiece in my helmet. The transmission was filled with static, and cut out in the middle, though I had an idea of what had been said, so I put my fingers up to the button on the outside of my helmet that would activate the transmitter. Instantly, static and feedback hit my air, causing me to jerk my head away from the noise inside of my helmet. The ringing lingered for a moment, during which the voice repeated its initial transmission, still distorted, might I add. 

“This is Red October,” I spoke clearly when I managed to get my communication channel usable. “Got any filthy Americans for us to shoot, Captain?” I joked, but the bass-level voice on the other end of the channel didn’t seem too amused with the joke. He came back with another transmission, but this time I couldn’t make heads nor tails of what he was saying, causing me to turn to my squad mates and shrugged. “Goddamn cell signal still isn’t working in this part of the reaches,” I explained, which brought up a hollow chuckle from my group as they all clambered to their feet, hefting their own weapons as they did so. “But, I think I’ve got the message.” I hefted my own weapon, held it in both paws, and stepped away from the shuttle door.

“Hey, Pilot.” I called over the engine’s roar, but was met with silence. I sighed, and assumed that the older panther in the front of the shuttle had heard my initial call. “How far are we from the drop zone?” I queried, poking my head through the door that separated the cockpit from the hold. The cheetah driving the shuttle looked back at me, and his eyes narrowed in annoyance before turning back to the radar screen in front of him. 

“Fifteen hundred meters.” I stood there for a minute, head still poked through the door, waiting to see if he would give me a time estimate, for the sake of me being a layman when it came to the mystic ways of piloting one of these scrap heaps. “About a minute.” He clarified before turning back to the controls of the shuttle. Fucking hell, I thought to myself, you would think that a new shuttle would travel faster than the old ones, but, hey, safety features. I turned back to my team, and informed them that we were going out the door in approximately a minute, probably more like forty-five seconds now. 

“So, if any of you forgot your gravity modules, then I hope you like getting spaced.” I joked, which, again, sent a muffled chuckle through the ranks of my three person team. They all moved toward the door of the shuttle, and we stood together, two by two in front of the door, ready to hop out of the shuttle for a quick drop-off. I held my rifle with one paw, the other one hanging on to the overhead rope I mentioned earlier, the one that I wouldn’t have trusted to hold a fucking rabbit securely. How ironic. 

“We’re above the drop zone.” The pilot informed us after a handful of seconds, and the door hissed as its hydraulics forced the steel panel outward, before it slid away from the opening that it had formerly been plugging. When the door opened wide enough, Wolford and Delgato stepped through the door, disappearing out of sight just as quickly as Finn and I stepped out of the door. There was a rush of air around my body, and the droning of the shuttle’s engines was suddenly replaced by the sound of heavy wind buffeting my suit. In the resistance, I reached up and pressed the button on my wrist that activated my gravity module. There was a dull hum as the system came to life, and I found myself falling faster, before colliding with the ground at what should have been terminal velocity. Fortunately, the shock padding in my suit absorbed the majority of the impact and, within a moment, I was standing and scanning the surrounding area for Wolford and Delgato. Fortunately, they hadn’t landed far away, and were already making their way over to Finn and I. 

“Alright, we’re on the clock,” I addressed my team, before looking down at the display on my wrist. “We now have four minutes until Manchas makes his rotation, so let’s get moving.” With that, we all hefted our weapon, and started at a jog toward our objective, which was marked at being about half a kilometer away, just over a dune that rose directly in front of us. 

“You would think that one of those new Pods wouldn’t land in a fucking desert.” Finn grumbled as he loped beside me, his smaller stature making it more difficult for him to keep up with the rest of the squad, but he did so nonetheless. “Thought these things were supposed to guarantee escapee’s lives.” He added, and I shrugged. 

“Well, I’m sure you can talk to the Lieutenant when we get to the Pod, see why she decided to crash this fucking thing on a desert planet. I’m sure she’d be glad to tell you, before she tries to shoot you.” Finn grumbled a four letter word over the comm channel, and I smirked to myself. He would say it low enough that none of us would be able to hear. When we made it to the foot of the dune, our going was slowed due to the incline, combined with the added threat of their possibly being hostiles on the ridge or in the valley below, sent here to retrieve the Lieutenant before we did. 

“Got anything on your scan?” I asked Delgato, who shook her head as she walked ahead of us, rifle level with the edge of the ridge that rose above us like a looming giant. “How about you Wolford, you got anything? Hear anything?” The youngest of our group shook his head as well, keeping focused just as Delgato did. Finn and I walked close behind them rifles lowered so that we could adjust the angle quickly, should the need arise. Each step brought us closer to the top of the ridge, and a visible tension built up in my squad as we approached the ridge, both Delgato and Wolford’s shoulders rose, the peripheral movement lessened. Finn and I mimicked this, though not as heavily. 

When we got to the top of the ridge, it became clear that there were no hostiles. All that lay on the other side of the ridge, as well, was a smoking hulk of scrap that may have, at one time, belonged to the Lieutenant that we had been sent here to retrieve. I cursed at the sight of the smoking heap, realizing that it had probably exploded on impact, just after sending out its distress signal. We all stood at the top of that ridge, staring down at the wreckage with our weapons down, heads bowed. 

“Well, ain’t that some shit.” Finn muttered as he walked up next to me. “Fly here from the fucking Perseus system for a blown up pod.” I shot a glare his way, but he just held up his hands in response. “Just saying.” I shook my head, and radioed Manchas, telling him that the pod was already destroyed. I asked him to make another rotation, so that I could attempt to identify the cause of the Pod’s destruction. In addition, I hoped to find something for the Lt.’s memorial service, which would, no doubt, be ready the moment that we returned to the ship. That is, assuming Manchas managed to get communication back to the Blackstar. If not, this would be just as much a shock to the Captain as it was to us.

“Fucking hell.” I muttered as I pushed a piece of the Pod’s wreckage aside with my foot. “I know this thing got completely battered on the way out, but you would think it would be able to take a little bit of small arms, at the very least.” Finn crouched down next to me, and tilted his head as he examined the wreckage in front of us. Delgato and Wolford hung back, ensuring that no hostile forces snuck up on us where we were currently standing. 

“Looks like it took a bit more than that.” Finn said once he walked around to the other side, where there was a hole in the side of the pod that made it look almost like it had been torn open like a tin can. My brows furrowed, and I crossed my arms over my chest, glancing at the jagged metal that stuck out in all directions. We stood in awe of the sight for a moment, and then I moved past Finn, stepping into the wreckage. The metal made a dull clamor as I stepped on it, and the sound resonated throughout the entire hull of the ship as though it was some manner of bell. I looked around, attempting to discern if the Lt. had left anything behind before, or after, presumably being spaced or burnt to ashes upon impact. I bit my lip as I moved aside some scorched pieces of what appeared to be survival equipment, part of me hoping that there wouldn’t be anything to find, nothing in the corpse persuasion, anyway. 

Fortunately, it seemed as though Lady Luck was smiling on me that day, because I did not come upon a corpse. There actually didn’t seem to be anything left of the Lt. when I was going through the wreckage, until my gaze fell on a pale blue light, sticking out from under one of the many pieces of metal that had fallen off of the inside and crashed to the floor, presumably when the pod had hit the ground. I sighed, and picked up the object, pulling it out from under the piece of metal. 

“Manchas, we’re ready to go.” I said over the transmitter as I stepped out. “Get us at the Pod, there’s no hostiles around here, or if they were, they’re long gone.” Finn and the others walked over to me to stand at the edge of the wreckage with me, letting their guard down at the knowledge that, if there were enemies, they would have gone by now if the state of the pod was any indication. 

“Anything useful?” Wolford asked, and I held up the small, square, pale, blue object that I had picked out of the wreckage, which dangled on the chain that had presumably been around the Lt.’s neck before she had torn it off. Wolford just shook his head, and looked off into the desert horizon. “Shame.” He muttered. “She was a good soldier.” I nodded in solemn agreement, a gesture which Finn and Delgato followed suit in, before the sound of the shuttle approaching brought our attention back up to the sky. 

The shuttle’s midnight-black paint job contrasted heavily with the dusty orange of the desolate landscape that seemed to stretch on for eternity around us. When it got down to the level that we could easily board, the engines actually quieted for a moment, creating a gentle hum rather than the thunderous roar that they usually produced. Wolford, Delgato, and Finn all got up into the shuttle before me, moving to their respective seats on the inside. I stepped up, and glanced over my shoulder, back at the wreckage. I sighed, and after taking my final look, I reached to close the door behind me, the hydraulics sealing the metal panel in place before we began our ascent. 

“You manage to get through to the Captain?” I questioned Manchas, moving to step into the cockpit, rather, the small space that one could stand in that was constituted as the cockpit. The panther looked up from the controls, and shook his head. “Atmospheric storms area a bitch.” I muttered before walking back into the hold. The grating beneath me feet trembled and made a rattling noise with my every step, which silenced the moment that I sat down across from Finn, though the seat quaked somewhat under me. Fucking safety improvements, they’re real, right? I pulled the tag out of my pocket, and held it between my legs, the identification tag swinging and turning lazily in the air. 

“That’s a real fucked up away to go.” Finn muttered as he leant back in his seat, having removed his helmet a moment ago. My old friend’s age showed in his fur, much of which was swiftly turning grey in a manner similar to my own. “Getting spaced like that?” I shrugged. “She didn’t deserve that.”

“Well, nobody deserves to get spaced.” I muttered in response, reaching up to remove my own helmet as I spoke. Delgato and Wolford removed their helmets as well, all of us setting them down between our paws as we waited for the shuttle to make its way back to the Blackstar. For a moment, we all sat in silence, all of us just looking at each other, the silent question being passed between us. Rather, two questions. First off, who was going to tell the Captain about the Lt., second, who was going to deliver the news to her family? I would certainly do the first one, if push came to shove, but I wasn’t heading back to land, not with there still being seven months left on tour. I didn’t fuck with that kind of quick adjustment process. 

“Art.” Finn addressed me from across the shuttle, leaning forward to rest his arm on his leg as he did so. “You need to tell her family.” My brows rose, and I sat back, throwing my hands up in the air. “You do, man. She looked up to you, I think it’s only appropriate.” 

“I agree.” Wolford muttered, and I shot a glare his way. “Like Finn said, Sir, Hopps looked up to you. If anyone’s going to tell her family, then it might as well be you.” I rolled my eyes, and leant forward, resting my arms on my knees. 

“What do you think?” I addressed Delgato, who shrugged. She leant back in the seat, and crossed her arms over her chest, leaning her head back against the wall of the shuttle as she did so, looking up into the small fluorescent light that hung above us. 

“I mean, I see where everyone is coming from, but I can also see why you wouldn’t want to go ashore, sir.” I nodded, thankful that Delgato understood the situation, which slowly seemed to dawn on Finn and Wolford as well. 

“Fuck, man.” Finn said, reaching to scratch the back of his head as the shuttle continued its way back toward the Blackstar. “I guess the Captain could do it, but, I don’t know how much he’d like that.” I rolled my eyes, and shrugged, before throwing the tag to Finn, who caught it out of the air with barely even a glance. 

“I don’t really give a damn, I’ll go ashore if you think it’s appropriate. Just, tell the Captian, and leave me out of the whole goddamn memorial service.” I stood, and grabbed a hold of the rope that dangled above us. “Last I checked, Hopps didn’t even want a service, but I’m sure her family will want one, and I’d rather not attend two.” Finn shrugged, but assured me that he would make sure nobody came calling for me if they did some sort of service for Hopps. 

“Thanks.” I muttered as the shuttle set down on the ship suddenly, seemingly having entered during the last part of our conversation. The door cracked open, and I was instantly met with the hulking frame of our Captain, standing just outside of the door with beefy arms crossed over an even beefier chest. Behind him, a good number of the crew were standing, waiting for news about their beloved Lieutenant. I stepped out of the shuttle ahead of my squad, and down into the view of everyone in the shuttle bay. I held my hand out for the tag, and Finn pressed it into my palm. With that, I stepped forward, closer to the Captain, who loomed over me almost in the same way that I did for Finn, though he stood considerably taller. 

“Sir,” I saluted, a gesture which he returned slowly, already sensing the impending bad news, obviously. “It is my sincere displeasure,” I began, “to report that Lieutenant Angela Hopps seems to have perished upon entry into the atmosphere of Perseus Four.” I held the tag out, allowing everyone to see the name of our fallen sister inscribed on the square. “I request leave, so that I can report the loss to her family.” Captain Bogo held his hand out, and I dropped the tag into his open palm, which then closed around the holo. He sighed, a deep, sorrowful sound, and then stood up straight, saluting me once more.

“Lieutenant Wilde, permission granted.”


	2. Planetside

Fucking bunnyburough, I thought to myself as the shuttle that I had boarded off of the Blackstar hummed over the colony planet. The planet brimmed with vegetation, nearly covering everything that I could see, save for the places where it failed to cover the bubble cities that were left over from before the terraforming and glassing process that had transpired after Third Push. It looked a hell of a lot nicer than many of the places that I had seen during my tour on the Blackstar, but it also carried this air of artificiality. This was due to the fact that the majority of the plants weren't native, instead being flown in and planted from Earth. Fucking bunnyburough, the first place that we managed to fuck up by bringing our natural vegetation here. 

"So, Lt." the rabbit who was piloting the transport shuttle addressed me from the cockpit. "You here on military business, or what?" I shrugged, shook my head, instead opting to remain silent. I wasn't supposed to be telling anyone about Lieutenant Hopps' death, besides her family, that is. After that, I only had one more thing to do, before I got the hell off planet and back onto the Blackstar. 

"I'm just visiting some friends." I addressed the rabbit, not wanting to be rude, considering that I was going to spend the majority of the day on the planet, and I would need this guy to give me a ride back off planet. The rabbit looked back, raised a curious brow at the dress uniform that I was wearing, but he didn't ask any further questions, sparing me the annoyance that usually came with wearing the uniform around civies. 

"We're almost to the town," the man addressed me, "well, the main one, anyway. You know your way around the shuttle station? Where are you trying to get?" My brows creased in annoyance, and I sighed. 

"I'm trying to get to Hopps farm, they're good friends of my family." I responded, leaning back in the seat that I had craned into, putting my paws between my legs as I sat. This fucking shuttle couldn't move fast enough, I just wanted to get this done and over with, gave people less time to recognize me if I didn't stay planetside for too long. 

I had to sit on that thing for at least another fifteen minutes, while the rabbit in the front talked my ear off, trying to get me to tell him if I was here on some secret mission, asking me all about the Blackstar, things that I didn't really want to respond to. After awhile, I just sighed, and stood, walked over to the shuttle door, and crossed my arms over my chest. "Look, sir," I responded "like I said, I'm here to visit some friends, nothing more. I've been on tour for nine months now, and I'm a little tired of being asked questions, so could you please, stop?" 

The rabbit shut up then, seemingly not used to having a senior officer tell him to shut his trap, but sure enough, he did. The shuttle landed soon after, and the door slid open. Without another word, I stepped out onto the platform that stopped next to the shuttle. I reached down, and ensured that Angela's tag was still in the pocket of my dress uniform. My paw closed around the pale blue tag, and I sighed. Yeah, it was still there, this wasn't a fucking dream, I was here, and I was probably get my ass torn asunder.

The shuttle station was, by Bunnyburough standards, fairly clear, even through the crowds that milled about, on their way to one destination or another. I stepped around the crowds, doing my best to avoid being caught in the middle of one, considering just how little diversity there was in the animal population on the planet. Being the only fox on a planet full of rabbits certainly didn't look innocent. So, I skirted around them all, and headed toward the gate that held the shuttle that went to and from Hopps farm, out in the parts of the planet where only people like the Hopps went. In fact, a place where only the Hopps went.

I stepped out into the terraformed atmosphere, and instantly got a taste of the oxygen that didn't seem right, even by the standards of artificial air. It burned my lungs, but not enough to bother me that much, just a slight annoyance that I knew would pull at the back of my mind the entire time that I was planetside. The air was cool at least, giving me a relief from the perpetual heat that dominated the Blackstar thanks to all of the systems we had to keep running.

Just a perk of working on a LRRS. 

The shuttle pulled up a few minutes later, showing its next stop on the side, above the door. By my count, it would take me at least twenty minutes on the shuttle, packed in with a metric function of rabbits, in order to get to the farm. At least this twenty minutes, I mused, wouldn't be filled with the irritating chatter of another Hopps. Maybe, I prayed, that wouldn't be the case at all.

I stepped onto the shuttle, and picked out the closest available seat. Thankfully, the shuttles were required to have seats big enough for predators. It was a tight fit, that was for sure, but it worked well enough. I sat down, crossed one leg over the other, and crossed my arms over my chest to settle in for the ride.

Unfortunately, it seemed like one kit in particular wasn't going to allow me my peace. He bounded over excitedly, and pulled on the leg of my pants in order to pull my attention down to where he stood. A quick glance in his parent's direction revealed a doe with eyes narrowed. Real respect for the troops, I thought to myself, before leaning forward and putting my elbows on my knees.

"Hey there." I greeted the kid, and he grinned, his eyes shining with the kind of wonder that you could only find in a child, and a young one, at that. He asked me if I was in the military, and I couldn't help but chuckle, considering I was wearing the standard uniform for soldiers planetside. "Yes, I am." I replied, smiling as I spoke, trying to come off as friendly as possible. "I'm Lieutenant Arthur Wilde, Imperial Fleet." The kit bounded up into the seat next to me, the doe sitting there moved to allow him space, and the kit asked me what I was doing in Bunnyburough, particularly, he added, since I was a fox.

"Well." I leant back in the seat, and clasped my paws together. "I'm here to visit some friends of mine." I informed the kit. "Then, I'm heading back up to my ship." The little kid launched into a line of questions about the ship then. Knowing that I could get grilled even for telling a child about the Blackstar, I lied, and told him that I served on the IMC Lionheart instead. This went on for probably half of the trip, until the door opened at the second stop, and the majority of the rabbits inside piled out, along with the kit that I had been talking with. He waved as he left, and fell into the small flock of his siblings as they all exited together.

Fucking thank the spirits, I thought to myself as I leant back into the seat again, thankful to be relieved of the civic duty of talking to civilians. Still, there were a few left on the shuttle, though they all got off on the next stop. No Hopps on this shuttle, at least, not unless one was hiding somewhere out of sight, which I highly doubted.

For the last few minutes of the drive, I really started to think on how to approach Bonnie and Stu, no doubt they would be in hysterics when I told them, then Stu would probably want to kick me off of the farm, or shoot me, or both, in either order. Then there was the issue of Angela's siblings, I didn't even begin to know how to talk to a fucking drove like they had. A couple of parents, a single sibling, I had done that plenty of time over my going-on thirty years in the service, but not with stupid crazy groups like this.

Before I could really think of a good way to approach the scenario, the shuttle came to a sudden stop, and the door slid open. There was a call from the front of the shuttle, informing me that this was the last stop. I thanked the driver, stood, and stepped off of the shuttle. The moment my shoes hit the dirt, the shuttle flew off. Fucking Hopps. 

The road that led up to the farm was framed on either side by a field, on which a myriad of vegetation was growing, the majority of it, presumably, being crops. At least, that would make sense when it came to the Hopps. Through small gaps in high rows of vegetation, I could see Angela's siblings working, poking and pulling at the ground, as well as the vegetables that the family was so widely known for. I didn't quite get what they were doing, but I didn't care either, farming wasn't my thing. Never had been, and, I hoped, never would be.

The Hopps home was almost identical to the sort of country house one might find on Earth, the only difference being that it was scaled up large enough to fit the gargantuan family that lived there. It seemed as though it was some sort of meal time, because a line went out the door, almost to the place where the fields ended, going through the right side of the door, while children exited the other side carrying plates loaded with food, heading for wherever it was that this family set down for food. 

"Fucking hell." I muttered, wondering how I was going to get around this horde. Then, I recognized that there seemed to be an older sibling standing on the porch, ensuring that line wasn't cut, and that the kids kept in order as they filed in for food. Her gaze swept over the line, violet irises never lingering on one spot until they fell on me. She looked me over, and then a single brow arched up as she abandoned the place where she stood, coming to meet me. 

"Evening, Ma'am." I greeted, again trying to be civil, at the very least. "Mind if I speak to Bonnie and Stu?" The young woman stopped a few feet away from me, crossed her arms over her chest, and cocked a hip to the side.

"Who's asking?" She asked, and I couldn't help but offer a hint of a smile. This girl had the same exact attitude as Angela, which actually brought a hint of sadness to accompany the memory of the Lieutenant I had served next to for the past few years. 

"Lieutenant Arthur Wilde," I spoke clearly, military bearing showing through. The girl's brows both rose now, though if it was at my rank, or my name, I didn't know. "Please, may I just speak to Bonnie and Stu?" The girl looked as though she wanted to argue, but relented when a voice called out from behind her, one that I recognized as Bonnie's. I looked up, and saw that she stood in the door, apron on, some manner of spoon in her hand.

"Arthur!" She called, with a tiny smile on her face. I could see the way that she was faking it, though, she could already tell why I was there. I had to admire the performance she was putting on though, for the sake of her kids.

"Hey, Bonnie." I said as I moved past the young woman who had approached me, my paws finding each other as I approached, my words getting stuck in my throat, but I managed to force them out, a script that I had more or less memorized over the years. "You mind if I talk with you and Stu, just for a little bit?" Bonnie nodded and stepped down. She undid her apron, and handed it to the young woman that now moved to her mother's side.

"Please go get your father." She whispered, low enough that I could barely hear it, or maybe my hearing was just getting that bad at this point. The girl nodded, and went back into the house. Minutes later, she emerged with Stu on her heels, who already had a look of disdain when his eyes fell on me. I waved half-heartedly, a gesture that he didn't return. He stepped down from the porch, and the young woman who had gotten him ushered all of her siblings inside. 

"What do you want?" Stu shot, and Bonnie gently put a hand on his shoulder before apologizing to me. I could see that she was fighting to contain her tears, while Stu was already shaking with anger. I sighed, and saluted them both, standing at perfect attention as I spoke.

"Mr. and Mrs. Hopps, it is with a heavy heart that I tell you that your daughter, Angela Hopps, was killed in action three day ago, upon reentry into Perseus Four, her escape pod came under fire, and sustained damage significant enough to bring about her death." I reached into my pocket, and withdrew the tag that Angela had worn during her service. I stepped forward, and held it out to Bonnie, who let me drop it into her palms, where she clutched it as she began to sob quietly. 

"Like I said." I offered, "I'm very sorry for your loss, but the Captain wanted me to talk with...Judy, while I was here, if that would be alright." Sty went to say something, I imagine it was a curse, but Bonnie stopped him once more, still wiping tears from her eyes. She looked at me, nodded, and put a hand on Stu's shoulder, turning him back toward the house. They went inside, and moments later, the young woman that had spoke to me earlier emerged. Figures, I supposed, that her twin would be so much like her.

"You wanted to talk to me?" She asked, now standing with her arms crossed over her chest, a few feet away from me. I sighed, and smoothed my ears back before letting them spring forward. "If you do, make it quick, my mom needs me." I couldn't help but reflect on just how much she sounded like Angela, then.

"Yes, Judy, I wanted to talk to you. First off, I wanted to say that I'm sorry for your loss." She cut me off at that, saying that she didn't care for my apologies. Again showing just how much like Angela she really was. "Well, if that's the case, then I'd like to offer you a transfer. You've been doing work in the Armored Fleet, under Admiral McHorn, right?" Judy nodded, though didn't give me any specifics.

"Well, seeing how you and your sister were the two candidates back when we started recruiting for Blackstar, Captain Bogo was wondering if you'd like to join us up there, we need someone to help maintain the guns, and I think you'd be well suited for it." Judy's brows furrowed, and she didn't most from the stand-offish stance that she had assumed moments ago. "I understand completely, if you don't want to-" before I could finish, Judy cut me off.

"I'll come with you," she responded "if you're going after whoever it was that killed my sister. If you aren't, then I'll stick with Admiral McHorn." There was a moment of hesitation, but then I told Judy that we would, indeed, be going after the raiders who had shot down Angela, that it was currently our first priority.

"Well then, I'll get my bags." Of course, things usually wouldn't be this easy, but the Captain had discussed this with the fleet commanders before we'd arrived in Colony Space, and Hopps' transfer had already been approved by Admiral McHorn. 

Guess I wouldn't be getting that rest after all.


	3. Red Fox

From across the bridge, I whistled a low, dangerous tone toward the rhino that sat on the other side, in one of the pilot's seats. He visibly started, and then jumped to his feet before thundering across the bridge, his footsteps resonating throughout the space with each impact of his massive hoofs. He moved around the map splayed out in front of me, and came to stand at my side, before saluting shakily.

"Y-yes sir?" He sputtered, and I sighed, taking my eyes off of the map that I had been observing, turning them on to the rhino. He quaked visibly where he stood, his hand shaking despite the obvious effort to keep it still. I smirked to myself at that observance, my tail swished back and forth beneath my newly acquired seat in satisfaction. 

"Did I hear you say something about how we handled the last ship?" I asked, cocking my head to the side in a questioning manner as I spoke. The Rhino started to sputter out an explanation, falling over his own words, but I held up a single pawn before sitting up straight now.  
"I didn't ask you for an explanation." I chuckled "I just want to know if you said something or not." A quick glance around the bridge revealed that everyone else had stopped what they were doing, now staring at McHorn and I as I awaited his response.

"I-I...yes, sir." Before he could say anything else I had gotten to my feet. Despite the fact that I stood maybe a quarter of the rhino's height he retreated when I stood, holding up his hands as he went. "I didn't mean it!" He exclaimed, voice quivering as he did so. I chuckled at that assertion, and reached for the pistol on my belt.

"Oh, they never do. Koslov?" At his name, the polar bear who stood constantly behind me came forward, seized McHorn, and forced him to the ground, where he knelt quivering and whispering hushed apologies as Koslov stood over him. I ignored the pleas, and sighed.

"Do you think I'm going to kill you?" I asked McHorn, and he suddenly stopped his quivering before he looked up at me, wide eyed. He looked around at everyone, as though he was searching for the correct answer. I barked the question at him again after a moment, still brandishing the pistol in my hand as I did so. He shook, and still didn't offer an answer. I smirked, and then asked a second question.

"Do you have a family, McHorn?" I asked, and he took a harsh swallow before nodding slowly. I smirked, and leant against the back of my seat, crossing my arms over my chest as I did so. "Kids?" Another nod, first from him, then from me. 

"Well, let's put this simply. Either I can have you kill them." I said, using the barrel of my pistol as a finger to point at the restrained rhino. "Or, I can." I grinned. "Which would you like?" Silence followed again, and I sighed when McHorn failed to answer.

"You are really testing my patience." I chided as I hopped down from the seat, making a near-silent thud when I hit the ground. "McHorn." I called to the bridge, knowing that one of the elder rhino's sons was on the bridge as well. Silence reigned, and then there were some dull footfalls as the other rhino made his way over. A quick glance over if the man revealed that he was definitely a good deal younger than his father, smaller horn, less muscle, he looked like he was a kid more than anything. He stood adjacent to both his father and I before saluting.

"Right, now that I've got my terms, I'll ask you one more time." I directed toward McHorn again. "Either you kill him, or, I kill him." Instantly , the older rhino began to beg, plead for his son's life. He offered himself up in return, and I chuckled. "Oh my dumb, dumb friend, that time is past." I snickered "I don't want to kill you now." I again pointed the gun toward the pilot's son. "I want to kill him. Or, you can do it for me." Silence again, save for the whisper in my ear from my companion, and best friend.

"Man; this is a little fucked up, even for you." I glanced back at the Fennec who sat on the edge of the chair, at perfect ear level with me currently. I smirked, and shrugged. 

"Could you give me a timer?" I asked my friend. "This rhino keeps wasting my time, and I want to get back to business, time is money." Finnick tapped the module on his wrist, and a timer came up after a moments of silent tapping on the holographic display. "Right, give him thirty seconds." The Rhino started to beg the moment that the timer began, while his son stood stock still, a stone set expression on his face. I couldn't help but snicker at this, before I turned the pistol on McHorn, the older one, and pulled the trigger. 

Bang, the pistol leapt in my hand, a bright muzzle flash momentarily illuminated the bridge, and the former pilot slumped to the ground at my feet. I smirked, and then looked up at his son. "You know how to fly, kid?" I asked, and he nodded, still standing like a perfectly molded soldier as he did so. "Well, it looks like a position in the pilot seat just opened up. Go on now." I gestured vaguely toward the front of the ship, before glancing back down at the corpse beneath me.

"Koslov, have him thrown out of the airlock, please, I don't want dead Rhino stinking up my bridge again." A pair of polar bears were summoned to take the corpse away, and I hopped back up into the Captain's seat, where Finnick also reclined, arms crossed over his chest.

"Was that really necessary?" He asked when I sat down, and I glanced over at him before shrugging. 

"You have to deal with mutiny before it can start, Buddy." I leant back and laced my paws behind my head as I put my feet up on the arm rest of the seat. "Have to make sure people know where their place is."

"Even when they're dead?" I chuckled.

"Especially when they're dead."


	4. Memories, Sharp as Daggers

“You’re telling me that you have no idea at all who shot my sister out of the sky?” The question was asked as I was walking out of the newly-settled rabbit’s quarters on the ship. She had probably been mulling the question over ever since she had asked the captain about it upon arriving on the ship, though why she was asking me now, I had no idea. She probably had a much better chance asking the Captain, and he hadn’t been able to offer anything, obviously. 

“Look, Judy, I’m not psychic, nor do I have any access to the reports on the wreckage that are being created right now, once we have those, maybe we’ll be able to give you an answer.” I went to turn and walk away again, but was stopped by a hand on my arm, gripping so tightly I thought that Hopps might have been waiting to punch me when I turned around to face her. 

Fortunately, when I turned to face the lilac eyes of the doe who barely stood at chest height to me, she did not have a fist raised in opposition to my question. Instead, she had this determined look, burning in her eyes in such a manner that I couldn’t help but be reminded of the sister she was so fervently pestering me about. I sighed as I leaned against the doorway that led into her quarters, crossing both arms over my chest when Hopps let go of the one she had been grabbing onto moments ago. 

“I just want to try and figure out what happened to her. She wrote me about you, don’t you want to figure out what happened to her, too?” She jabbed a finger in my direction like a knife when she asked the question, and I leaned my head against the door to join my shoulder. It was true, I did want to figure out what happened to Angela. Hell, I had poured over the reports that I did have for hours, trying to figure out anything that might help me discern what band of Raiders might have shot her out of the sky, if they were the culprits. 

“Trust me kid, I do want to figure out what happened to your sister. I just can’t do anything with the information that I have. If you’d like the reports that I’ve been looking at, fine, but I can guarantee you won’t be able to get anything worthwhile out of them.” The look on Hopps' face told me that she was offended by the fact that I didn’t think she would get anything from the report, but I was just honest. I was trained in this kind of shit, and she was just a kid from a podunk who had been with the armored decision for a couple of years. She wasn’t a tracker, and she wasn’t a detective. Neither was I, anymore, but I didn’t lose knowledge because my title changed.

“I’ll have it transferred to your holo within the next couple of hours.” I turned to leave again, but this time Judy called to me in order to stop me, and I groaned audibly before turning to face her once more. “What?” I hoped that the annoyance was as clear to her ears as it was to mine, because I was getting tired of standing here and talking to her. 

“What about your son?” The question caught me off guard, actually caused me to wince as a whole handful of memories were shoved up into the forefront of my mind. I had done my best to get him out of my mind, and now, here this kid was, shoving it back in my face? 

“What about him?” 

“He could have been responsible for it, couldn’t he?” The fur bristled on the back of my neck at the accusation, and my tail flicked the air behind me. I managed to keep a composed visage on my face, but the rest of my body language was a whole other story. As much as I would’ve loved to control natural reactions, my tail especially, I had nothing that I could do to stop it from doing its thing. 

“There are a lot of Spacers, I would imagine you know that. Nick is one of the thousands. Besides,” I glanced toward one of the windows as one of the memories I had been trying to conceal came rushing up to greet me. “I was told that he was spaced when we destroyed one of the vessels that he had taken control of. Not something that would come up in a report for people like you.” I couldn’t help the venom creeping into my voice as I cast a condescending gaze on Judy. 

“Did anyone ever confirm it? Recover a body? A testimony? Anything?” I felt my claws slowly sliding out of their sheaths, and I had to curl my paws up in an effort to restrain them. Without another word, I turned, slammed the button that would close Judy’s door and then stalked off. Who in the hell was she to talk about things that she knew nothing about? A dumb, carrot-farming kid from the armored division, that’s who. Why she was on this ship, I had no idea, and why I found myself so offended by the suggestion of my son being alive, I was even more lost. 

Nick did not deserve to be roaming free, doing the things that he did, I’ll make that clear. Living, however, that’s different. He didn’t deserve to get spaced, just like I told Finn, nobody deserved to get spaced. He at least owed it to his mother to say sorry before he was brought to justice. He at least owed her that, along with many, many more things. 

By the time I made it back to my quarters, I felt sadness welling up in the pit of my stomach at the memory of Maya sitting on their bed, sobbing into her hands when she heard the news that Nick was dead. I remembered how she hugged that damned picture of our son to her chest for days, curled into a ball on the bed. The way that she didn’t speak to anyone, refused even to leave the room, you would’ve thought that our son was a saint, a boy who had loved his mother with everything he had. 

Nick, my damn son, was far from the illusion that he had left on his mother. I had heard many words thrown around about him in the years that led up to me getting the report of him being spaced. Murder, rapist, pirate, warlord, those were a few that stuck out in my head. Fortunately, Maya got spared these attacks. The fact that she barely left the house or turned on the news probably helped. Not that the Alliance was reporting much on their fleet being taken down or hijacked by an officer’s son. 

I faced my own window, the same circular porthole that was in almost every room that served as quarters for the crew. The millions and millions of stars that darted space stared back at me, taunting me with the vast expanse that they made up as Judy’s words rung in my head. What if Nick had done it? Words I had heard too many times over the past few years, so many that I wanted to ride all of the memories of it from my mind. At some point, I’m not sure how long, I managed to shake off the stupor that had fallen over me from Judy’s words. 

None of us lived in a fairytale world, and mammals don’t come back from the dead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: ANNNNNDDDDDD we're back, maybe, possibly, I don't know. Maybe if this gets some decent reception because it's clearing up things people have clearly been confused about. Eh, I don't know, enjoy anyway.


	5. Disruption

Where I stood on the bridge at Captain Bogo’s side I could see Hopps down below us, calibrating the guns from one of the few terminals on the Blackstar that had a direct link to the cannons. I watched as she glanced from her holo-reader and then back to the terminal before making some adjustments on the screen. I was unsure what was on her holo, if it was the calibrations that had been determined as optimal for the Blackstar, or if it was the reports that I had sent to her the night previous. Either way, it seemed unprofessional that she was looking back and forth between a holo and her terminal. 

“Hopps, how’s the calibration going?” Judy’s ears perked up, and she turned to look up at the Captain and I,offering a standard salute as she spoke. 

“Taking longer than expected, sir, but with them being uncalibrated in the past few weeks that’s  
to be expected.” Bogo huffed beside me before he leaned back in his chair, the dark blue of his Captain’s uniform looking highly odd in the way that it nearly matched the tone of his fur, something that I still wasn’t over even after serving with him for as long as the Blackstar had been commissioned in the Alliance Navy. 

“Kid not working out as well as you thought she might, sir?” Bogo cast a glare in my direction at the question, and huffed through his nostrils in response instead of offering any sort of vocal comeback. I smirked to myself, I had expected some sort of comeback from him, maybe he was getting soft in his old age. 

Though, I wasn’t really one to talk when it came to old age. I was up there just as far as the Captain was, easily the oldest member of the crew that served under him. Finn may show it worse, but I had a good handful of years on him. Speaking of my friend, he strolled onto the bridge, hands in the pockets of his uniform as he came up, staring out the window at the front of the bridge. He looked like he had just woken up, and considering it wasn’t his shift as pilot yet I wouldn’t be surprised. 

“Hey buddy, get enough beauty sleep?” 

“Shut the fuck up.” 

“Ensign.” Cap warned in a dangerous tone as he glared at the tiny Fennec that stood next to me. “How many times do I need to remind you about your language?” Finn rolled his eyes, and walked toward the front of the ship, where the other pilot was currently on duty. Guess he was eager to get in the pilot’s seat today, and I guess that I couldn’t blame him. 

I’d talked to him last night, about what had happened with Judy, about what she had said. He and I were in the same boat, in a way. Of course, his son wasn’t the one catching the majority of the flak for the things that had been going on in their little Raider tribe, but Finn was disappointed in his Jr. all the same. 

Had been, anyway. To the best of Finn’s knowledge Jr. had caught the same treatment as Nick when the Alliance had gone after them. Hearing about it again had made him angry, there was no doubt about that, but it had probably trudged up memories similar to my own. My guess was that staring out at space would do him some good, keep him occupied, lest the memories get to him. 

The bridge was quiet for awhile then. There was the usual chatter from all of the people that usually talked during their tasks, the subtle shifts of the guns as Hopps adjusted them below, and the sound of Bogo humming beside me as he scrolled through his inbox, ensuring that he hadn’t missed anything important. While the Captain was preoccupied, it was my job to keep an eye on the ship’s systems, and the screen in front of me allowed for ease in that task. We were running optimally at current, a little low on fuel, but Finn had been made aware of that before taking the helm. He’d get us to a station before we were in dire need of it. 

It was easy to settle into a bit of a haze when you’re just sitting around on a bridge all day. Usually we’d get a transmission from the fleet, a mission, an update, something, but so far there had been radio silence all day. Usually I would actually be glad for the silence but I, like Finn, wanted to have my mind taken off of the things that were rising back up in my brain. I’d already had to deal with thinking about Nick one more time than I wanted to in the past twenty-four hours, I wasn’t in the mood to do it again. 

So, excusing myself from my post for a short break, I slid down the ladder that led to the deck beneath the bridge itself, where Hopps and a few engineers that took care of, you guessed it, the engine and some of the other systems that were too complicated for soldiers like me to understand. When I hit the floor of the deck with a dull thud Hopps turned to face me from where she was hunched over a terminal. The moment her eyes fell on me her gaze fell, and she turned away again. 

“Hopps.” Judy looked up at the call of her name, and I gestured her over. She complied, taking one glance back at her terminal before walking over. 

“Sir,” she greeted. “is there something that you need?” 

“I want to talk about what happened last night, Hopps.” 

“Look, sir, I’m sorry if I annoyed you or something, I was just saying.” Before she continued, I held up a paw in order to tell her that I needed to speak, and that she just needed to listen. The more and more I interacted with Judy, I was reminded of Angela the same. 

“I get it, and I hope you understand now that there’s really nothing for us to do about Angela, not until we get some more information. I,however, want to apologize for acting the way that I did last night. I was unprofessional, and did not act as a commanding officer should. I apologize.” I lowered my voice for the rest of my statement, barely allowing it to rise above a whisper. “When we dock for fuel, I have a contact waiting for me at the depot that I told Finn to stop at. He said that he might have some information on Angela. If you want to come with me, then that’s fine. Just don’t let anyone know, got it?” Judy’s eyes lit up seemingly at the prospect of learning something about what happened to her sister, and she nodded. 

“Good, now get back to calibrating the guns. Bogo wants to have them at the optimal output in case we run into trouble. With that, I swung back around and ascended back up the ladder, before dropping into the seat that was just in front of the Captain’s, a bit to the side. He glanced down at me in question when I sat down, but seemed to be unfazed by the fact that I had just gone down to the lower deck to come right back up a few minutes later. He probably didn’t care, honestly, as long as I wasn’t messing with anything outside of my qualifications down there. Then again, just about everything down there was outside of my qualifications when it came to running a ship. 

“Wilde, send a message to Admiral Lionheart, tell him that we’re going to be out of commission while we get fuel.” I nodded, and pulled up the messaging screen on my holo, sending one to Admiral Lionheart as Bogo commanded. I took note that we should be at the fuel depot within the hour which, by the amount of fuel in our tank, was just in time. Without closing the messaging screen I scrolled over until I found my contact, an old friend from the streets back on Earth. A lot of things changed when we all got into space exploration or the Navy, but the fact that my old gang and I were always looking out for each other didn’t. It helped that the two leaders of the old gang were serving on the same top-secret military vessel. 

I smirked at the thought as I glanced at Finn’s too-large ears, which poked out from the seat that he piloted the ship from. We had just been kids then, but here we were nearly thirty years later, on the exact opposite side of the law. 

I was snapped from what memories I was mulling over by an urgent message flashing across the screen that displayed to the entirety of the bridge. I announced to Captain Bogo that we were being hailed by Admiral Lionheart, and he instructed me to patch the call through, which I did promptly. It wasn’t often that we got a call from the Admiral on the bridge, and when I say not often, I mean that it had never happened before. 

The Admiral of the fleet appeared on the screen, the camera far enough back that the crew was able to take in his impressive frame, which filled nearly the entirety of the shot. He had his arms crossed over his chest, only adding to the imposing posture. When the call was displayed, Captain Bogo stood and saluted as he addressed Admiral Lionheart. 

“Sit down.” The display of Lionheart order, and Bogo complied. “Now’s not the time for formalities Captain. A division of the fleet in your cluster has come under attack, and they need assistance immediately. Can you spare the fuel to assist them?” Bogo’s response that we might be able to, depending on how close the allied ships were. 

In response, Lionheart pulled up a map of the cluster we were in on the screen and pointed to it. 

“You can count on us.” Bogo said before cutting off the transmission and ordering Finn to adjust trajectory toward the instructed coordinates, much further away than we could get on the limited fuel that we had. 

“Sir, we’re not going to be able to make it.” I informed Bogo, worried that he might have misread our fuel gauge or something, which would be ludicrous, considering that we had talked about addressing the fuel issue just a couple of hours ago. 

“We’ll make it, Wilde. Finn,” he called toward the front of the bridge, which caused my friend to lean out to glance back at the Captain in response. “Activate hyperdrive, we’re going to jump right into the middle of the mess.” I almost wanted to have a cup of coffee in my hand just so I could do a spit-take. 

“Sir, if we disrupt friendly systems then they’re going to be dead in the water.” 

“Yes, I know, but so will the enemies.” Well, this was one hell of a gamble, but I had neither the rank nor the knowledge to argue with the Captain, so I just went with it. I threw my hands up in the air, and and strolled back to my seat as the rest of the bridge did the same, getting to their seats around the bridge and strapping themselves in as Finn prepared to take us into hyperdrive. 

“Hold onto your hats.” Finn announced before he hit the switch for hyperdrive. All of the lights on the ship momentarily flickered as the power was funneled into the warp strolled back to my seat as the rest of the bridge did the same, getting to their seats around the bridge and strapping themselves in as Finn prepared to take us into hyperdrive. drive beneath the deck, and then everything outside became a blur so incoherent that I couldn’t even begin to understand what I was looking at. My head was pinned back to my chair as everything rushed by, and it felt like my organs were about to break free of their mortal coil to escape the force being exerted on them.

Just as quickly as we had started the jump, it stopped, and I was thrown forward against the restraints that had kept me from sailing into the back of the ship during the jump, through the door that led to the bridge, and into some other part of the ship. 

The resulting boom of coming out of slipspace had created a pulse that will have, no doubt, disrupted the systems of any ships within the close vicinity of our coming out. By the fact that we had emerged directly between an alliance cruiser and what I presumed to be a small collection of hostile ships, I imagine that they were both wondering what the hell had just happened. 

“Alright, let’s get.” Before Bogo could finish his sentence, the Blackstar shook and rattled violently, tipping to the side at such an angle that I hit the ground and had to scramble to avoid falling to the lower deck. 

“What the hell was that?” He demanded of those who still had eyes on the ship’s systems. 

“Direct hit, sir!” One of the mammals called. “Starboard side.” Bogo cursed, and then turned to me. 

“Wilde, get your team onto that enemy ship, and get it disabled before we and the rest of the detachment get torn to shreds. We’ll do our best to keep them distracted while you dock.” I nodded, saluted, and then called for Wolford and Delgato. Finn would be more useful on the ship, so I left him behind at the three of us headed to the armory. 

It wasn’t until we were all turning to head out that I realized an unwanted addition had followed us. Judy stood in full armor in the doorway when we went to leave, and when I asked what she thought she was doing, she informed me that I needed a full team, and she was the one that the ship could currently spare. The guns were calibrated, after all, and wouldn’t need to be calibrated again until after the fight was over. 

I wanted to argue and send her back to Bogo, but at the moment I was more worried about getting this done, to make sure that the Blackstar got through this fight without being annihilated. So, I told Judy to stick close to me while we were on the enemy ship, and we headed toward the shuttle bay.


	6. Tables Turn

Manchas got us directly above an entry point on the hull of the ship before we all jumped out, our suits giving us a very limited oxygen supply that should have allowed us to get inside. Doing just like we had on Perseus 4, my team and I activated our gravity modules, which drew us down onto the hull of the ship with a succession of what would have been metallic thuds had there been any noise. I glanced back to ensure that everyone was stable on the ship and ready to move before I said over comms that the hatch was just a few meters in front of us. Once we got inside, we were supposed to head directly for the bridge. The plan was to either capture or kill the captain of this vessel, an act that would hopefully cause the rest of the hostile fleet to cease fire. That, or it would allow us to get control of another cruiser, a definite advantage in a fight with a bunch of skirmishers. 

Walking to the hatch was slow going, each step felt like it was going to pull me through the metal of the ship with the module adjusting for no gravity at all. It seemed like Hopps was having the least trouble, considering she was the smallest. She actually ended up getting ahead of Delgato, Wolford and I, and made it to the escape hatch before we did. Once I got there I took a glance at the oxygen meter in the corner of my helmet. By its display, we had about three minutes left of oxygen. Hacking this hatch in order to get in would take at least half of that, so I advised my team to be ready to hold their breath as I leaned down and connected my holo to the small console that sat directly next to the hatch. 

Before I could even react, the hatch opened, and a hail of gunfire poured out from the new opening. We all dove back from the hatch as well as we could, Wolford and Delgato momentarily disengaged their modules to get some extra distance. I, on the other hand, grabbed the newest member of our team and pulled her toward a piece of the ship that offered a sort of makeshift cover. I got her down behind it, and then raised my head back toward the hatch to see if the fire was still coming through the hole. We had a minute of oxygen left, and my guess was that these guys had at least three minutes worth of ammo to put in our direction. 

I called for Wolford over comms as I directed my fire back toward the hatch in an attempt to dissuade any hostiles from putting their heads over the breach. Before I ran out of ammo in my clip Wolford was by my side, asking me what I wanted him to do. I directed the younger soldier to use one of the breaching charges that we had on hand to blow a hole in the hull of the ship. 

“With all due respect, sir, you can’t be serious.” He put a few shots in the direction of the hatch while I reloaded my weapon, before continuing. “If we blow our way in then there’s no guarantee that we’ll be able to get to a place with oxygen before we run out.” 

“Yeah? If we stay out here then we definitely run out of oxygen. Now get moving.” I barked, moving to draw fire away from Wolford and Judy as they both went about placing the breaching charge. Wolford’s point was valid, chances were that the inside of the ship would seal off the moment that there was a hole blown in the hull, but that would also mean that the hostiles inside would experience depressurization, since the hatch was the only thing keeping things stable inside right now. Once they were gone we might be able to find another hatch to get into an oxygenated part of the ship, but it was a long shot. A long shot was better than no shot, though. 

The hull rocked when the breaching charge went off behind me, and the ensuing depressurization pulled at my back despite the module that held me steady to the ship, threatening to send me off into the dark expanse of space. Along with the gust of air came the hostiles that had been on the other side of the hatch. None of them had been wearing suits inside the hatch, they’d had no need to. Now I had to move quickly into the ship in order to avoid the sight of the spaced mammals that my team had just put out into darkness. 

My module allowed me to fall to the floor inside of the ship just as my store of oxygen ran out. Thankfully, there was still probably about a minute’s supply or so left in my helmet, along with the rest of my team. I advised them all to avoid breathing as much as possible while I went about getting the door open. I walked over to the nearest door, and attached my holo to it again. I didn’t speak any further as I stared at the spinning wheel on my holo indicating that the hacking program was running. I allowed myself to take short, even breaths, trying to ensure that I didn’t use all of my oxygen up in one or two big breaths. 

I glanced back at my team to ensure that they were doing as well as I was. I saw that Judy was swaying somewhat on her feet, but whether that was in an effort to distract herself from the lack of oxygen or because of the aforementioned issue, I couldn’t tell. 

Soon enough, I started to feel short of breath, and there was an instant reaction in my body. My lungs tightened, my eyes began to water and burned as my brain and my lungs alike both screamed for oxygen. I swayed on my feet, doing my best to keep the holo attached to the console, hoping that I could make it for the time it would take the holo to open the door. 

C’mon you piece of shit, I thought to myself, why the hell is it taking so long? Just as I thought that we were done for, the doors in front of me opened. Before I could think of anything else, I grabbed Judy from behind me and helped her through, while Delgato helped Wolford through the door, who was on the edge of unconsciousness. When the door closed behind us and the hallway pressurized once more I tore Judy’s helmet off before doing the same for myself, allowing us both access to the oxygen that we needed. Judy gasped, sucking in deep lungfuls of air as she sat, doubled over in the middle of the hall. Delgato leaned against the wall, while Wolford sat leaning against the same wall, both of their helmets were abandoned on the floor. 

“Alright, we need to get moving.” I declared once my lungs had stopped burning so terribly. I picked up Judy’s handgun and handed it to her while I hoisted my own rifle off of the ground where I had dropped it. We both returned out helmets to our heads, while Wolford and Delgato did the same. “Keep your eyes up, no telling where hostiles might come from on this ship.” 

“Hey Lt., isn’t this an Alliance ship?” I turned to glance back at Wolford, who was still in the process of picking up his rifle from where he had abandoned it on the floor. “Or am I crazy?”

“Why does it matter?” 

“Don’t we have schematics of all Alliance ships? We could use them to get us to the bridge faster, if we can find out what ship this is.” That was presuming that this was even an Alliance ship. If it was, it had certainly been through some shit. It looked like there had already been gunfights in the hallway that we found ourselves in currently. Sections of the wall were chipped, holes showing up in some sections where shots must have missed their mark. There were even parts of the floor that looked like they had been chipped up by gunfire. 

“Do either of you know about any captured Alliance ships as of late?” I took point as I asked the question, the rest of my team falling in behind me as they glanced around in the hallway. “Last I heard, there hadn’t been any captured in a couple of years.” 

“None captured that were reported.” Wolford replied, checking around a corner into an engineering duct as he spoke. “But we both know that doesn’t always mean shit, Lt.” He had a point there, we’d barely even known about a lot of the ships that were captured until we came into contact with them during battles like this one. 

“Noted, any indication of which one this might be then?” I heard Wolford hum over comms before Judy piped up. 

“Sir, I think this is an uncommissioned cruiser.” I glanced back at the rabbit at her interruption, and asked for an explanation as to her thought. I was unaware of any cruisers that had even been under construction, but I wasn’t the savviest when it came to what was happening planetside. 

“The cruisers that were being developed when I was in training were being outfitted with resistors to the pulses emitted by ships coming out of warp drive. It would explain why this ship wasn’t disabled when we came out of slipspace.” I shook my head at the thought. The idea of a criminal getting his hands on a cruiser was absurd in and of itself, but an experimental ship, that was a whole different story. 

“Maybe you’re right Hopps, but somehow I doubt it. We’re not usually taking experimental tech out for a test flight.” We all piled up in front of a door at the end of the hall, one that should have led to the main common area of the ship, if my experience on other cruisers was anything to go off of. The printed word Atrium above the door also gave a decent indication as to that effect. Once we cleared the atrium, it would be a straight shot to the bridge from the floor directly below us. Again, that was if this cruiser worked like other ones that I had been aboard during my time in the service. 

“Ready?” I asked my team, and they all nodded before I reached over and pressed the button to open the door. Unlike the others, it wasn’t sealed thanks to the fact that the Atrium hadn’t taken any fire, and the door opened as soon as I pressed the button. We all went in together, and were met with an empty top floor. The Atrium was like many that I had seen, a floor of catwalks that encircled a common area two floors below, with another set of catwalks directly below us. 

We all crept forward toward the stairway that was around the corner from where we currently stood, searching the shadows and the floors below for any sign of hostiles. If we were lucky, they would have all taken up battle positions below the main decks, where the cannons tended to be placed. That was presuming the best, the worst case was that there were still some stragglers like the hostiles who had been sent to get us off of the side of the ship. 

Two by two we went down the stairs in a full coverage formation. Wolford watched our backs with his rifle pointed back up the stairs, Judy to the right, Delgato to the left, and I watched the front. It was just about when we hit the second floor that I heard the door open above us, and we all dove behind the nearest cover that we could find as a hail of bullets were fired in our direction. 

“Get to the door toward the bridge.” I called over comms once Judy and I had taken up a position behind cover. “We can’t fight them from below like this.” Judy and I moved first while Wolford and Delgato gave us suppressing fire, their position already being closer to the door than ours was. There were calls from the two of them that they were getting low on ammo, and our situation started to look grim when I looked up at how many mammals were currently taking up a position above us. Too many for us to take on single-handedly, unless we could somehow turn the tables in our favor. A quick glance at the skylight gave me the idea that might have saved our lives. 

Once Judy and I joined Wolford and Delgato I advised them both to get through the door as I reloaded my own rifle, having gone through a magazine in the process of covering Judy. They both nodded and, while Judy and I laid out cover to return the favor they had offered, they went through the door. I glanced back to ensure that they were through before I grabbed Judy and tossed her like a doll through the door. I then rushed forward toward the door. In the doorway I turned and unloaded my clip into the skylight, shattering the glass before the magazine was empty. I dove through the door before it sealed behind me, and panted as I thought to myself that I had really earned my pay on this one. 

“Hi there.” My ears perked up at the sound of that voice, and I slowly turned to see who was standing there, holding a pistol in his paw. There were two polar bears on either side of him, each pointing shotguns in our directions. If I hadn’t been able to see his face clearly I wouldn’t have believed for a second that I was looking at him, but here he was in the flesh, pointing a gun at me. “Mind telling me why you’ve been trespassing on my ship?” 

“Nick?” The word was forced from my mouth from behind a tongue tied in a knot, and the red fox in question cocked a brow in question, the emerald eyes that we shared lighting up with recognition of my voice. There was a moment of silence, and then a wicked smile split the features that were so similar to my own. 

“You’re still doing this?” He snickered. “I thought they would have retired you by now, old man.” I saw out of the corner of my eye that Delgato was reaching for a gun, but was stopped short by a shotgun blast that floored her. The gunshot resonated for a second, and I heard Nick sigh before he turned his gaze toward the polar bear on his left. 

“Was that really necessary?” Before the polar bear could respond, Nick held up a paw. “We’ll discuss it later. For now, send my father and the wolf back to their ship in a pod, I’m keeping the rabbit.” I heard Judy protest from beside me, but she was silenced when the pair of bears leveled their weapons at her. 

“Don’t do this Nick, keep me, not her.” I went to move in front of Judy, but Nick leveled the pistol that he held at my head from where he had lowered it. 

“Uh, no. That would ruin the fun, so why don’t you go with my friends here, and I’ll take the rabbit?” There was a moment where I thought he was going to shoot me, before the ship rocked violently, sending Nick to the floor along with the polar bears. I took advantage of the momentary lapse in their defenses to grab the handgun out of Judy’s hands and put a bullet in one of the bear’s skulls, before I grabbed the shotgun that he had been holding. Another shot rang out as Wolford used his rifle on the second polar bear, and then Judy and I turned our weapons on Nick, whose pistol had slid across the floor in the chaos of the ship rocking. 

“Well,” my son mused from where he lay on the floor. “That could have gone better.”


End file.
